Method and system for the control of discontinuous reception in a wireless network

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for controlling discontinuous reception on a mobile device and in particular to control a short discontinuous reception timer in response to receipt of a medium access control control element. The methods and apparatus include stopping, restarting or maintaining the short discontinuous reception timer. Methods and apparatus for limiting or stopping a retransmission timer by providing user equipment with a maximum retry value for transmissions, by providing a maximum redundant version value, or by providing a medium access control control element to stop or prevent the start of a retransmission timer.

We claim: 
     
       1. A method for discontinuous reception (DRX) operations, comprising:
 receiving, at a user equipment (UE) and from a network element, a medium access control (MAC) control element; 
 determining whether the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier; and 
 stopping a retransmission timer or preventing the retransmission timer from starting based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier. 
 
     
     
       2. A user equipment for discontinuous reception (DRX) operations, comprising:
 a communications subsystem adapted to communicate with a network element and to further receive a medium access control (MAC) control element from the network element; and 
 a processor configured to
 determine that the MAC control element is received, 
 determine whether the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier, and 
 stop a retransmission timer or preventing the retransmission timer from starting based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier. 
 
 
     
     
       3. An apparatus comprising instructions embodied on a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium, the instructions operable when executed to cause a computing system to perform operations comprising:
 receiving, at a user equipment (UE) and from a network element, a medium access control (MAC) control element; 
 determining whether the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier; and 
 stopping a retransmission timer or preventing the retransmission timer from starting based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 wherein the retransmission timer corresponds to the identified HARQ process. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
 determining that the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 identifying the HARQ process based on the HARQ process identifier. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 4 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
 determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identifying the HARQ process based on a number of transmissions associated with the HARQ process. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 4 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
 determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identifying the HARQ process based on a value of the retransmission timer associated with the HARQ process. 
 
     
     
       8. The user equipment of  claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to:
 identify a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 wherein the retransmission timer corresponds to the identified HARQ process. 
 
     
     
       9. The user equipment of  claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
 determine that the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 identify the HARQ process based on the HARQ process identifier. 
 
     
     
       10. The user equipment of  claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
 determine that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identify the HARQ process based on a number of transmissions associated with the HARQ process. 
 
     
     
       11. The user equipment of  claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
 determine that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identify the HARQ process based on a value of the retransmission timer associated with the HARQ process. 
 
     
     
       12. The apparatus of  claim 3 , the operations further comprising:
 identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 wherein the retransmission timer corresponds to the identified HARQ process. 
 
     
     
       13. The apparatus of  claim 12 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
 determining that the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 identifying the HARQ process based on the HARQ process identifier. 
 
     
     
       14. The apparatus of  claim 12 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
 determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identifying the HARQ process based on a number of transmissions associated with the HARQ process. 
 
     
     
       15. The apparatus of  claim 12 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
 determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and 
 in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identifying the HARQ process based on a value of the retransmission timer associated with the HARQ process.